Patriots' newcomer showed the right stuff in debut

Friday

Aug 29, 2014 at 10:32 PMAug 29, 2014 at 10:35 PM

Tight end Tim Wright gained enough knowledge in a short period of time to go out and make four receptions in Thursday night's preseason finale with the New York Giants. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick says Wright ''handled the situation pretty well.''

Glen Farley The Enterprise @GFarley_ent

Tight end Tim Wright’s debut may not have been enough to make Tom Brady forget about the six-time Pro Bowl left guard who’s no longer protecting his blind side, but it wasn’t bad for starters.

With Brady relegated to holding for Stephen Gostkowski on a point-after conversion in the second quarter, Wright, acquired from Tampa Bay along with a fourth-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft in exchange for Logan Mankins on Tuesday, went out and caught four passes for 43 yards from rookie quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in the Patriots’ 16-13 preseason-ending loss to the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium.

“I think the big thing for Tim (Thursday) night was just his opportunity to be in our system and play in our system,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said during a conference call on Friday afterrnoon. “There (are) things that happen during the game on the field, on the sideline with substitution, on the bench in between series, the communication, all those things. He heard the snap count. He heard the quarterback audible. He heard adjustments being made on the sideline. All those things which are a part of the game.”

Admittedly, Wright was operating with a condensed version of the Patriots’ playbook.

“He only knew a handful of plays,” Belichick acknowledged, “but overall I thought he handled the situation pretty well. But I think the big thing for him and for the rest of the team, for us, was just that chance to get him actually play(ing) in our system. Even though it was an abbreviated way of doing it, it’s a lot better than next week (the regular-season opener at Miami on Sept. 7) being the first time that all those things happen. So that was good.”

The coach viewed the game as a positive introduction for his newest player.

“I think he learned a lot,” said Belichick. “We saw some things for him – in other words, what are going to be the biggest differences, what are going to be the things that are pretty similar, (things he’s) pretty familiar with, not really a problem. What are going to be some things that are going to be a little bit more of a learning curve for him.

“A lot of that really crystallized (Thursday) night that he can feed back for us or we can see in working with him that he’s pretty far along in these things, but maybe not as far along on maybe something else. So that was, I think, the benefit (Thursday) night for that particular player.”

The second-year tight end has experienced change in his NFL life before.

A wide receiver at Rutgers University, the 6-foot-4, 220-pounder signed with the Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent last year and caught 54 passes for 571 yards and five touchdowns after being converted to tight end.

Belichick on Friday praised Wright’s ability to retain as much as he did in such an abbreviated period of time.

“He was able to absorb a lot of information in a short amount of time and go out there and function in the game,” the coach said. “It certainly wasn’t perfect, but formations and the routes and so forth – there’s certainly a lot of fine tuning that needs to be done – but he picked all that up pretty quickly and when he got in the game didn’t forget it.

“Sometimes it’s one thing to sit in a meeting and go over and feel like, yeah, you’ve got it and, OK, you hear this, you’re going to do that. It’s another thing to actually go out there and do it full speed in game situations. He handled quite a bit of information in a short amount of time pretty well so that was good.

“Now this week, obviously it’ll be starting at the beginning, like everybody else will, in terms of our game plan and preparations for Miami so we’ll just take it day by day and see how it goes. But I thought he handled a lot of information pretty well.”

Glen Farley may be reached at gfarley@enterprisenews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @GFarley_ent.

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